Erica’s Comments (group member since Apr 05, 2019)

Erica’s comments from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.

Jen wrote: "Happy Thursday!

Is it just me, or has Goodreads been marking entire discussion threads from last year as unread for anyone else?

Finished:
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by [..."

Not just you, I too noticed the glitchreads acting up.

Laura wrote: "is there a way to search this thread? I am currently reading Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult. I have prompt 2, 23, 28, 39, 42, and 47 left. I have the ebook on loan from the library ruling out 2 and 28. ..."

If you're on the desktop versio you can search the thread. Scroll up to the top and on the right side of this thread.

Happy check-in! The ATY read-a-thon is over and I managed three PS prompts.

Finished Reading:

The Love Theorem ⭐⭐
I wanted to like this rom com but insta love, a smart mc that didn't know the actor with a tesla might be famous, and one sorry not sorry moment about reading physical copies of books being bad for the environment.

Horrorstör ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I pushed myself and read this on audio and I quite liked the dual narrators. It was quite weird to start but then I clued into the catalogue aspect and it was quite clever. The horror side is there at the same time as the satire.

Queen Charlotte ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I liked this more than the 8 Bridgerton books I've read.

The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 2: Dallas ⭐⭐⭐
Clever ideas and humour but the plot and characters are hard to follow.

QOTW:
I can think of many retellings I've loved but I haven't read the original material to compare.

Happy check-in! It's beautiful here. Colours are changing on the trees, there are still sunny days with a nice breeze. I need to mow the lawn but the compost is full of leaves already, darn I have to wait until pickup. ;)

The ATY read-a-thon has pushed me to do lots of reading and I've managed to finish 3 more PS prompts so that's great.

Finished Reading:

Time Is a Mother ⭐⭐
There was one poem I really loved but mostly I couldn't connect with it.

Golden Girl ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(PS two languages)
Middle grade poetry in verse. The mc has kleptomania and her father is falsely convicted of a crime in Pakistan.

MPLS Sound ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gorgeous artwork. For Prince fans.

Barely Functional Adult: It’ll All Make Sense Eventually ⭐⭐⭐
I thought this was a graphic novel but it's a book with little drawings added here and there. The author used metaphor to dole out advice to her past self. Not what I was looking for.

After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse ⭐⭐ (PS independent book store)
I bought this thinking it was actually more story for this world. Realized it's just a couple lines about various characters so I kept this to read for the next read-a-thon. Now I can get rid of a book.

Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If he writes it I will read it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 7 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm finally done with these Omnibuses. This mostly deals with after Joyce's death and Buffy's second death. Sad. Somehow there's still Angel in it.

Tastes Like Shakkar ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (PS Romance fat lead)
Book two of a series. This was a spin on Much Ado About Nothing.

PS 46/50
ATY 48/52
Nadine's 10/10
Goodreads 189/250

Currently Reading:

Punching the Air
Jane Eyre His term of endearment was 'my mustard seed'???????

QOTW:
I usually have at least two going, one book, and one ebook. My currently reading shelf has 10+ listed though...

They are arranged by size mostly keeping series together as much as possible. Organized chaos to fit the limited shelf space although now there are piles because there are too many.

@Poshpenny copy a period and then you just have to type control v to end your sentence.

Happy check-in! So since May I'm pretty sure we've had more smoke days than rainy days by a long shot. Today seemed pretty good but the air was still 5 on the index and it should be 1 or 2. All in all smoke days are better than being anywhere near the fires.

I'm looking forward to the ATY read-a-thon that starts on Saturday. I have lots of books I put down as a plan... watch how I read everything else. ;)

Finished Reading:

And Yet: Poems ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Now I've read all her published stuff. What kind of Woman is still the best.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (PS historical fiction)
I finally read something by Stephen King that I enjoyed.

Doll Bones ⭐⭐⭐
A backlist of Holly Black. Middle grade about a creepy doll.

PS 43/50
ATY 48/52
Nadine's 10/10
Goodreads 181/250

Currently Reading:

Little Women BOTM
Barely Functional Adult: It’ll All Make Sense Eventually
The Brothers Hawthorne


QOTW:

New SAGA in October!!!
Also Iron Flame, Lore Olympus: Volume Five, Monstress, Vol. 8: Inferno, The Night Eaters: Her Little Reapers, System Collapse, Heartstopper: Volume 5, Throne of the Fallen, Check & Mate

Title: What Moves the Dead
Author: T. Kingfisher
Recommend: Yes. I have not read The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales but this made me want to.

@Nadine Haha. Well I can’t fault you for not wanting to read it. :) The synopsis seemed arty and chill, then all the violence and obsessions with corpses showed up. ??

Happy check- in! It's been a while but I'm actually back to reading. Oddly enough quitting everything I was trying to read and rereading a favourite series got me back into reading. It still took week though.

Finished:

Fourth Wing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was fun. DRAGONS.

Sensory: Life on the Spectrum: An Autistic Comics Anthology ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I think I first heard of this from this thread so thanks to whoever that was.

The Old Woman with the Knife ⭐⭐⭐ (ATY dark)
A good idea but it never built to much.

What Kind of Woman: Poems ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really liked these poems.

Chill Factor ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (ATY recipe)
The library finally sent this. Book 3 of Rachel Caine's weather warden series. Two more to go.

The Blood Gift ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very heavy book and it took me months to read but I really loved this duology.

I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Baer read the comment section instead of deleting them. She posts the original comment and pulls out words for her poem.

RIVER'S EDGE ⭐
Worst book of the year for me. A mostly random pick from the library that did not work out well. Set in 90s Tokyo following six teenagers. So depressing and crazy weird. @Nadine this might be the book for you if you want batshit.

Bitter Root, Vol. 1: Family Business ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another book I picked up because of this thread.

Princess Princess Ever After ⭐⭐⭐
The tea dragon books are so much better.

Wild Sign ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm finally caught up in this world.

PS 42/50
ATY 48/52
Nadine's 10/10
Goodreads 178/250

QOTW:
I love re-reads but this challenge was to get me out of that habit. I turned one of the rereads into a book that makes you nostalgic and the other into a straight reread. I think the phrasing and doubling up was annoying.

For a book called The Hunting Party were you expecting gun violence for the murder?
I was expecting gun violence probably because of all the covers with the deer head silhouettes.

Will Julian and Miranda's insider trading be relevant to the murder?
Wasn't sure could be motive.

Why isn't Emma bothered by Mark's crush on Miranda?
Well I thought Emma is Miranda's stalker so Mark has good taste in Emma's eyes I guess.

Katie sees someone in camo that disappears so quickly when they are out hunting. Do you think she actually saw someone, if so who?
I thought it was the third resort employee

A little past half way in the book and we have a murdered woman who has bruising on her neck and Doug has blackouts and previously been in jail for strangling someone. This is unlikely to be the end solution so have your predictions changed or are you doubling down on them?
I was thinking that Doug was going to face blame and maybe someone would get away with things in the end

I didn’t notice troubles with the search engine but I did try and look through all my books sorted by most number of ratings and it is not accurate. Are they purposely changing things to push/sell new books. I was sad to see the staff summer reading got changed from the three books they plan to read this summer to new releases. Books don’t become unreadable after three years Goodreads!

Finished. This is one book where I wish goodreads would allow the .5 stars. Anyway I enjoyed this book and it was great to read about a snow storm whilst in a heat wave.

So sorry about your Tigger Lynn.


Well I've hit my reading slump again this year, a month earlier though. I've managed two books this month when I usually read around 20 per month. Oh well, I am over half done the BOTM so hopefully I can finish that soon. It's weird to read a book set in a winter snow storm while outside in the full sun and heat.

Finished:

Psyche and Eros ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (PS a book that makes you nostalgic)
I changed the wording of a reread prompt for this one. I loved this retelling, it was well done like The Song of Achilles.

PS 41/50
ATY 43/52
Nadine's 10/10
Goodreads 148/250

Currently Reading:
So many things but not really.

QOTW:
I feel compelled to read the original but I usually just end up reading the retellings. If they're really good, they might make me read the original.

Chapters 14 - 31

For a book called The Hunting Party were you expecting gun violence for the murder?

Will Julian and Miranda's insider trading be relevant to the murder?

Why isn't Emma bothered by Mark's crush on Miranda?

Katie sees someone in camo that disappears so quickly when they are out hunting. Do you think she actually saw someone, if so who?

A little past half way in the book and we have a murdered woman who has bruising on her neck and Doug has blackouts and previously been in jail for strangling someone. This is unlikely to be the end solution so have your predictions changed or are you doubling down on them?

I guess I better answer my own questions.

Chapters 1 - 13

So this appears to be a closed circuit/circle murder mystery. Are you a fan of this type of mystery or mysteries in general?
I read a couple of mysteries or thrillers but mostly SFF.

Do short chapters push the pace of books or are they an annoyance?
Usually short chapters make a book go fast for me, this is an off month though.

Can you read a mystery slowly?
Yes.

First predictions about who is murdered and who is the murderer?
Well other than the baby being okay I'm not too sure. ;)
I think that Emma is stalking Miranda and Katie and Julien are having an affair. That said I'm guessing one of the guys will end up dead just because we get most of the female characters perspective.

So far there has been five POVs: Heather, Doug, Emma, Miranda, Katie. Is this too many to follow, will Foley add more?
I'm good with this amount of povs. I don't want new povs suddenly.

Ingvar, one of the extra guests, mentions a serial killer going after women. Is this a red herring plot point?
I think this is thrown in as a distraction. It will be a murder for love or money.

Dubhease wrote: "
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider"

Not sure. The only obvious one is the new parents. I don't read the synopsis on books very much.

Joanna wrote: "The other thing that I will say annoys me is the mystery about who the deceased is. It just feels so convoluted in Heather's chapters that they keep being referred to as "the guest" or now "the body" with no identifying details - she knows full well who it is, so it just irritates me that it's not revealed. I don't mind not knowing things the characters don't know (i.e. the murderer's identity), but I don't like not being told things they do. I guess maybe because it feels like an artificial attempt to make more suspense, but since the characters know, it just seems so contrived. Anyone else feel that way, or am I just being a grump? With The Guest List, I began thinking of it as a thriller rather than a mystery - like, you can't really work on solving the mystery until you know what the crime is, so the point of the book is the suspense, rather than the solving."

I usually agree that it is frustrating to be reading first person and have the author purposely hide things from the reader. I really noticed this with the Sookie Stackhouse series. The mc is a mind reader and useful information is kept from the reader until the very end of the book to solve the various mysteries and make the mc suddenly be so smart. I kinda thought that was lazy writing because the author couldn't come up with a plan/story that unfolded reasonably.

That said in this and the other Lucy Foley book I read it hasn't been so bothersome and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe because this isn't my typical genre or because the story moves quick.

Hey, sorry I haven't posted new questions. I'm struggling to read this month and there has been family health issues that have kept me from this book. I intend to get another chunk done and post new questions soon.

L Y N N wrote: "Ugh. I always forget about Canada Day!! Thanks for mentioning it! (I'm still pretty US-centric, I'm afraid...)

I have a paperback copy that I obtained used from my favorite local used bookstore as..."

I just recently found my copy at a book sale, and many other books too.